June 08 2015

4 Tips For Meeting Planners Who Want To Use Periscope

By David McMillin

Jimmy Fallon used it to preview his monologue rehearsal. Arnold Schwarzenegger used it for a question-and-answer session with Terminator fans. Al Roker used it to show Today viewers how the TV show’s crew gets ready in the morning.

The “it” is Periscope, the Twitter-owned live video streaming app that debuted earlier this year, and it’s going to have a big impact on the way users experience content. In fact, it’s already having an impact on the meetings industry. On Tuesday, June 16 at PCMA’s Education Conference in Fort Lauderdale, the Virtual Edge Institute will broadcast a morning educational session via Periscope straight to the organization’s home page. In the afternoon, the meetings and education teams have also added programming during lunch to help attendees understand the legal and copyright implications of live streaming a meeting’s content.

“Apps like Periscope and Meerkat are going to have a tremendous impact on meetings and conventions,” Carolyn Clark, Director, VEI, says. “This will be a first for us and a first for PCMA, and we hope to use the opportunity to help meeting professionals and suppliers alike recognize how on-the-spot sharing will change the course of adult education.”

Dahlia El Gazzar, CEO of The Meeting Pool and the presenter behind VEI’s first-ever foray into Periscoping, expects user-friendly live video streaming solutions to transform the future of content delivery.

“These give a whole new dimension to webcasting and hybrid events,” El Gazzar says. “It’s not just about content sharing. It’s about extending what you’re seeing to your entire network.”

If you’re looking to make that extension, here are four tips to help you understand the power of live video streaming.

1) This can be a burden on your bandwidth.

Whether someone on your meetings team want to broadcast behind-the-scenes footage of the meeting or an attendee wants to show off his or her experience, everyone using live streaming needs a strong Wi-Fi signal.

“We are the mercy of the strength of our Wi-Fi connections,” El Gazzar says. “That’s the most crucial ingredient of success with live streaming.”

However, it’s important to remember that live streaming apps are brand new, so your host venue may have not taken them into consideration in your bandwidth needs.

“Our supplier partners are telling us these apps are often draining the event’s planned bandwidth,” Clark says. “This can slow down the speed for the entire audience and occasionally crash the network.”

2) Your hands are going to need some help.

No one wants to feel like they’re riding a rollercoaster while watching a video. Rather than having someone on your meetings team hold a smartphone for a full hour, El Gazzar recommends investing in an essential hands-free accessory.

“If you’re going to take Periscope seriously, you’ll need to use a tripod,” El Gazzar says.

4) Your angle is everything.

While you may not be able to perfect every second of the video, you can take steps to make sure the broadcast is as smooth as possible. El Gazzar recommends testing different vantage points before going live.

“Get the angle right, especially if you have a speaker with a screen behind them,” El Gazzar says. “The positioning of the visual is key to capturing the attention of your audience.”